If today we think of anime studios, it is increasingly easy for us to know a good handful like Wit Studio, MAPPA, Studio Trigger or Science Saru… but the one that managed to open the way for all of these was Toei Animation.
Together with Sunrise, it is surely one of the most famous anime studios in the West, and one of the pioneers to whom we owe much of the history of Japanese animation.
Disney as an example to follow
Measuring up against Disney is not easy, but it is certainly what the founders of the studio were aiming for. Originally born in 1948 as Japan Animated Films by the animators Kenzō Masaoka and Zenjirō Yamamotoalthough with the post-war on top they did not manage to release their first film until 1958. And if Walt Disney had a mouse as a pet, they had Pero, his version of ‘Puss in Boots’ that was released in 1969.
Already in the 60s is when Toei began to move at full speed, and if Disney adapted children’s stories, they found another inspiration directly at home: the manga. This is how the studio began to create several television series such as ‘Rainbow Sentain Robin’, ‘Sally the Witch’ or ‘Tiger Mask’, although they also dared with some original stories.
In the 70s the big titles like ‘Mazinger Z’, ‘Devilman’, ‘Candy Candy’‘ and so many anime that put the studio on the map forever… and it was also where anime legends like Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Yasuji Mori.
It was thanks to the series that Toei Animation it slipped into the biggest anime producers, and in the 80s they found the real gold mine.
Pirates and Dragon Balls
In 1986 Toei released the series that would change everything: ‘Dragon Ball‘, and the truth is that the success of the anime was something that surely not even Akira Toriyama himself saw coming. The franchise is the most successful in the entire history of anime, with series, movies, video specials, all kinds of merchandising… A real nonsense that has practically meant that the studio could live solely on ‘Dragon Ball’.
Because something else maybe not, but good sense of smell in Toei they have plenty. In the 1980s and 1990s he continued to cast anime with tremendous potential such as ‘Saint Seiya’, ‘Sailor Moon’, ‘Digimon’, and ‘Yu-Gi-Oh’, but his second great cucumber came with ‘One Piece‘, which has completely changed the course of the study.
Because despite being a legendary studio, it almost seems like we hear less and less about Toei and it doesn’t sound as much like other anime producers. This does not mean that it has slowed down, because every year they continue to release series, but in the last decade they have been focusing more and more on taking care of and squeezing their biggest franchises and on refocusing again on the big screen.
in 2022 Toei broke box office records with 32 billion yen ‘One Piece Film: Red’, And this is only if we are talking about a movie without taking into account the rest of the studio’s income. Because Toei has been in charge of the ‘One Piece’ anime since 1999, but it also has the ‘One Piece’ franchises in its pocket.Dragon Ball’ and ‘Sailor Moon’three of the biggest anime series of all time.
With this alone, you could live a little on the income, and it is somewhat understood why Toei has slowed down with its new series since 2020. And it is that today HE dedicated almost exclusively to producing ‘Pretty Cure’ and ‘Digimon‘ and get more chicha from their big franchises with movies like ‘The First Slam Dunk’ (which has also already amassed a lot at the box office and is still waiting for it to reach the West).
Toei no longer needs to take risks with new series because it already has the big ones and it will never release them, and this good eye in the past to sign which manga to adapt has ensured the success of the study for all posterity. Because they may not be Disney (nor do they need to), but in Toei Animation They have made Goku, Luffy, Usagi, and the rest of their characters remembered as legends.
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